Ludlam warns against online rights complacency

Praises Australia's ISPs and engineers for taking up the fight.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has urged Australia's "militant ISPs and engineers" not to get complacent in the fight for online rights.

Speaking at a surprise appearance at Linux.conf.au, Ludlam praised parts of Australia's internet industry for being vocal on issues that were otherwise being negotiated behind closed doors by former Attorney-General Robert McClelland.

McClelland had been overseeing negotiation for an ISP data retention regime and anti-piracy regime.

Ludlam said that Labor's cabinet reshuffle late last year that led to McClelland being replaced by Nicola Roxon was "fantastic".

He was hopeful Roxon would not follow the same path as her predecessor in opting for closed-door discussions.

Ludlam also warned of the effects of cybercrime laws, noting they tend to expand into much larger forms of surveillance and can be difficult or impossible to repeal.

He also slammed the current political climate in the United States, saying they were "transitioning quite rapidly into an authoritarian state" that was "becoming increasingly unmoored from the constitution and the rule of law".

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